


Something Like That

by carefulren



Series: Something Like That (Spiderman AU) [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, M/M, Sickfic, Spiderman AU, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt, also hunk is the real mvp best friend, and shiro is a fangirl brother, basically Lance is spiderman and he's sick, had an anon ask for this, keith is a grump but not grump, spider-man au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 20:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11562450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carefulren/pseuds/carefulren
Summary: Lance is sick, but work calls in the form of an apartment fire. It's tasking and leaves him feeling worse than before, but it's then that he finds help in an unlikely ally.





	Something Like That

“You should really go straight home today, Lance.”

With a tissue pressed to his nose, Lance freezes at Hunk’s words, and he drags a narrowed gaze toward his best friend. “You know I can’t do that,” he mutters around the tissue with a voice thick with congestion. 

Hunk twists around in his desk chair and leans toward Lance with a loud sigh. “But you’re sick.”

The want to dismiss Hunk’s claim is hot on Lance’s tongue, but his lungs choose that moment to swell and rattle out a few sharp coughs that have him turning away to bury his face into the crook of his arm.

Hunk arches one brow when Lance looks back. “I can’t wait to hear you make an excuse for that,” he says while motioning toward Lance.

“It’s just allergies,” Lance replies with a low sigh as he rubs absently at his throat. He knows it’s not allergies; he knows Hunk knows it’s not allergies, but he will take this excuse to the grave, whatever he has to do.

“You have a fever,” Hunk supplies, and Lance snaps his face toward Hunk with a dismissal burning on his lips, but his words come to a screeching halt when Hunk takes the chance to press a few fingertips to his cheek.

“A bad one at that,” Hunk mutters as he drops his hand with a deep frown. “Lance-”

“Hunk, I can’t,” Lance groans while massaging his head. The skin underneath his hand is hot; though, it warms his icy hands, so he can’t really complain. “I can’t skip work.”

“Employees are typically allowed sick days. It’s better to not go to work while sick because if you do, you risk contagion, and thus, the business is put at risk.”

Both Lance and Hunk turn their gazes slowly toward Keith, who is occupying a desk in the back corner and scribbling away at a sketchpad.

“I’m convinced you only come to detention to eavesdrop,” Hunk mutters to Keith just as Lance quickly presses his tissues back to his nose as small sneezing fit wracks his frame.

“You two talk loud enough,” Keith points out without pulling his gaze away from his sketchpad, and Lance sniffles before narrowing his eyes toward Keith.

“Doesn’t matter if we are screaming, you still shouldn’t listen.” Lance spits out, annoyance falling away to surprise when Keith looks up with a deadpan expression.

“Your voice sounds stupid right now.”

Lance tosses both hands in the air with a loud sigh before spinning back in his chair to glare at the clock as if he can will the hands to move faster. He’s itching to get out and suit up for another night of patrol; his muscles are tense from a full day of school paired with this stupid cold, and he wants nothing more than to swing around buildings as he searches for even the slightest hint of danger. He’s almost falling into a daze when Hunk gasps quietly at his side.

He snaps a quick gaze to see his friend hunched over his phone, and he leans over with a loud sniffle to try and sneak a peek. “What?” He asks when Hunk twists his body away to block Lance from seeing the phone. “What is it?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” Hunk mutters, but before Lance can press further, their detention supervisor is hopping from her chair and cutting on the small television.

As soon as the news pops on, Lance’s jerks up straight in his seat as all of his muscles go tense. There appears to be a fire, not far from here he thinks. An apartment building it looks like. The camera pans away from the building to a newswoman interviewing a very distraught older man.

_“And you said your child is still in the building?”_

_“Yes! Please! I need help! Please! Where’s that spider guy? He can save my kid, can’t he?”_

Lance spares one quick glance toward Hunk, but the latter has no argument to stop Lance from going, not when peoples’ lives are involved. There’s worry coloring Hunk’s eyes, but Lance smiles a wide smile before shooting up from his chair.

“Lance? Where are you-”

Lance glances toward the door as he grabs at a bouncing thought. He suddenly hunches over with one arm pressed tightly around his abdomen. “I don’t feel well. I think I might…” He fakes a gag and clamps a hand over his mouth, and the teacher waves him away with a hushed gasp.

He snatches his backpack and darts out of the room, and the second the door is closed, he’s racing toward the school’s exit as fast as his protesting legs will take him.

*****

“Spider-Man is here!”

“He’s come to save us!”

Lance can’t help the animated wave toward the civilians below as he swings toward the burning building. He crashes through a window, and instantly he’s sucking in gulps of smoke that have him coughing and bracing against a wall as his vision wavers in and out of focus. But, a piercing scream has him shaking his head and putting one arm up in front of his face as he moves toward the distressed person.

After searching two rooms, he finds a young girl cowering in the corner, and she shares slight similarities with the man he saw on the news. She perks up when she sees him approaching her, and Lance drops to a crouch in front of her.

“You ready to get out of here?” He asks, keeping his voice calm yet confident, and the young girl nods quickly and holds out both arms. Lance scoops her up and adjusts her to where he’s supporting her weight with one arm before he races toward the nearest window and dives out.

It takes only seconds of smooth swinging until he’s dropping onto the ground with a light thump, and he’s instantly met with screams of encouragement and praise as he hands the young girl to the apparent father.

“My daughter. You-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lance says while rubbing at the back of his neck. “It’s what I’m here for. You should go get her checked out by a paramedic, though. I don’t know how much smoke she’s inhaled.”

The man nods and scurries off toward the multiple ambulances lining the street, and Lance watches him go before turning away to cough harshly into the crook of his arm. Each cough grates uncomfortably against his throat, and he fails to hear a newswoman approach him until it’s too late.

“Are you quite alright, Spider-Man?”

Lance jumps and swallows back more coughs as he snaps his gaze toward the woman. There’s a camera pointed toward him, and he quickly eases into a charming persona. “I’m just perfect,” he tells the woman with a wink. “Just inhaled some smoke.” When the woman nods with a look of relief, Lance takes the sudden interruption in his favor. “Do you know if there’s anyone else still in the building?”

“Three more people on the top-”

Lance doesn’t wait for her to finish as he whips around and shoots a strong web to pull him up to the top floor.

*****

The whole ordeal takes around two hours, and by the time he’s finished, Lance is utterly exhausted. He finds the roof of an apartment building and perches himself on the edge with his knees drawn tightly to his chest to suppress the tremors coating his veins with ice. Every muscle in his body is aching fiercely, his head is pounding, his nose is red-rimmed and irritated, and his chest feels tight and hot. He wants to rip his mask off, call it a day, but it’s still too early despite the sun just now dipping below the horizon and bringing with it the chill of night.

He typically patrols until one or two a.m., so he’s got quite a bit of time ahead of him, but he’s struggling to muster up the energy to do just about anything. A sudden tickle in his nose as him sliding his thumb under his mask, but right as he’s about to rip it off, a door slams open behind him.

He jumps and falls forward off the building, but his quick reflexes have him utilizing his abilities to cling to the brick wall and slowly climb back up just in time to see Keith looking over the edge at him.

“I thought I killed you,” Keith says flatly, and Lance contemplates letting go of the ledge he’s now grabbing onto and swinging away, but a sharp breeze brings along a tight shiver, and he reluctantly pulls himself up and over until he’s back on the roof facing Keith.

“What are you doing here?” Lance asks while desperately trying to make his voice sound deeper than it usually is; though, with the congestion and evident rasp, that’s not as challenging as he may think

For a moment, Keith just frowns with a slight tilt of the head, and Lance is practically on edge by the time the mysterious boy decides to respond.

“You’re sick.”

Lance sighs, but then he’s forced to slip his mask up just above his nose to sneeze harshly into the crook of his elbow. His shoulders shake with the force, and he breathes out a low groan that feels like sandpaper against his throat just as he turns back to Keith with one hand already pulling the mask back down. But, when Keith’s slender fingers wrap around his wrist, Lance freezes and sucks in a sharp gasp just as Keith prods lightly at his exposed cheek with his fingertips.  

“You’re hot.”

“Are you hitting on me?” Lance asks quickly in a blaring attempt to direct the attention elsewhere, but Keith only frowns and drops his hands back to his sides, allowing Lance to fully slip the mask back on.

“No. I mean your skin is hot like you’ve got a fever.”

Lance shrugs and crosses his arms over his chest as another sharp breeze whips past the two. “I’m fine. Why are you here?”

“I live here,” Keith says while motioning absently to the apartment building. “You should be resting.”

He sounds like Hunk, Lance thinks as he spins on his heel to leap off the building, but before he can, those same slender fingers are finding his wrist once more.

“Wait. My brother is a doctor, so our apartment is overflowing with medicine. I can give you some.”

Every thought in Lance’s mind screams that this is not a good idea, but he’s feeling absolutely dreadful, so he nods and follows Keith into the apartment building and down three flights of steps until they reach the apartment.

Lance can hear clanking around about in the kitchen as the two walk in, and moments later, a young man is walking into the room, only to jerk to a halt with wide eyes. He’s tall, broad, sporting a soft red apron and looking seconds from keeling over from shock alone.

“Um, Keith? You know that… There’s… Spider-Man…”

Lance offers a small wave as Keith waves a dismissive hand toward his brother.

“Don’t be a fangirl about it, Shiro. He’s sick, so I’m going to give him some of our medicine.”

Lance is honestly impressed with how quickly Shiro steps into doctor mode. The older boy’s face scrunches up into a clear image of concern, and he’s already starting toward Lance.

“Sick? Is there something I can do?”

Lance wants to say no, but before he can utter a peep, Keith's moving in for the response.

“Seems like just a bad cold, but if you could heat up some of your magic soup, that would be cool.”

“That’s not-”

“Of course!”

“Necessary,” Lance finishes under his breath as he allows Keith to pull him into a bathroom down a small hall. He’s ordered onto the edge of a tub, and he complies wordlessly as Keith rustles about in a medicine cabinet. After a few moments, Keith moves toward Lance with a thermometer and a bottle of pills, and Lance is already shaking his head before Keith can get a word out.

“This is really all too much,” he tries, but Keith ignores him in favor of crouching before him and thumbing at his mask.

Lance goes tense, and he growls out a single “don’t.”

“Not all the way,” Keith says as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. “Just like before. Right above your nose.”

Lance nods once then swats Keith’s hand away to lift his mask himself. He eases it just to the bridge of his nose and turns away to let out a few harsh coughs before turning back to have a thermometer shoved in his mouth. He keeps still and silent until the device beeps. Keith is slightly quicker and snatches the instrument before he frowns at the reading.

“102.4 degrees,” he mutters. “That’s kind of high.”

Lance is already slipping his mask back down. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine,” he mutters, more as a reassurance to himself than to Keith. The number is certainly higher than he expected, but it makes sense considering how awful he’s feeling. But, he wouldn’t take back going out to save those people today; he would never skip out on rescuing innocent lives.

“You will be once you take these and have some soup.”

Again, Lance shakes his head as if to protest, but Keith waves a dismissive hand.

“It’s pretty clear you are lacking in the simple ability to take care of yourself, so I’ll step up and help.”

Frowning Lance tilts his head at this. “Why?”

The shimmer that flicks across Keith’s eyes is one Lance picks up on instantly but cannot decipher. He wants to press further, to ask why Keith is helping him, but Shiro calling out that the soup is done has Keith turning sharply on his heel and stalking off to the kitchen. Lance waits only a moment, taking a second to collect his thoughts, before he slowly stands and starts after Keith.

*****

“You look worlds better.”

Lance shuts his locker and smiles softly at Hunk. “I’m feeling worlds better.”

“Did you take my advice and rest after you played hero and saved people?”

Lance is listening to Hunk, but his gaze is drifting over toward Keith across the hall. The two lock eyes, and they hold the other’s gaze for an endless second until Keith pulls away and stalks off down the hall toward his first class.

Lance drags his fleeting gaze back to Hunk and shrugs.

“Something like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't want to put this in my massive h/c voltron compilation because i'm really proud of this for some reason and wanted it as a stand alone


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